Defamation case against owners of Facebook fan page in Pune

A complaint in the matter was filed by Rupali Chakankar, Pune district head of women's wing of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The page is registered on Facebook as a political organisation, is named 'Devendra Fadnavis for Maharashtra' and enjoys a following of 1.5 million.

A case under Section 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66(c) of the Information Technology (IT) Act was registered at the Sinhagad road police station.(HT PHOTO)

A case of defamation was registered against the owner(s) of a Facebook fan page of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for publishing content which blamed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress leaders for the caste-based violence which ensued in Maharashtra in the aftermath of the Bhima Koregaon anniversary celebration.

A complaint in the matter was filed by Rupali Chakankar, Pune district head of women's wing of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The page is registered on Facebook as a political organisation, is named 'Devendra Fadnavis for Maharashtra' and enjoys a following of 1.5 million.

"We have sent the matter to the cyber crime cell to identify the admin of the page. We will know better once we know who runs the page. It is not related to the chief minister, it looks like a fan page," said police inspector (crime) BL Khodade of the Sinhagad road police station.

A case under Section 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66(c) of the Information Technology (IT) Act was registered at the Sinhagad road police station.

One caricature showing a Congress leader and MLA Jignesh Mevani, along with NCP leader Ajit Pawar fuelling a fire representative of the caste-violence led to multiple comments in support and against the characters in the caricature. Other similar content against Pawar was shared on the page.

Mevani, along with Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid are facing charges of inciting violence, public mischief and furnishing false information in Pune.